The children, whose ages ranged from 6 to 13, were taken by ambulance to hospitals with what appeared to be non-life-threatening injuries.

Law enforcement officials declined to identify the family of the rescued children, citing the family's wish for privacy.

WASHINGTON

Two teens killed in fall off mountain

Two teenage boys died during a hike in the mountains east of Seattle after falling from rocks near a waterfall.

A group of four teenage boys had gone hiking to Otter Falls when two of them climbed the rocks near the falls and fell about 100 feet, the King County Sheriff's office said Monday.

After the fall, one of the other boys ran for help and came upon two hikers who went to the site of the accident to help. The boy continued running down the trail until he found a U.S. Forest Service employee.

“This is a very tragic situation,” said Sheriff's Sgt. Cindi West. “There is no cell service in the area, so it is likely that the Forest Service employee had to drive down the mountain to call 911.”

MASSACHUSETTS

Convicted killer to get sex change

A convicted murderer who won the right to get a state-funded sex change also is eligible to have legal fees — expected to top $500,000 — paid as well, a federal judge ruled.

In a landmark decision, U.S. District Judge Mark Wolf earlier this month ordered the state Department of Correction to provide sex-reassignment surgery to Michelle Kosilek.

Wolf found that prison officials had violated Kosilek's Eighth Amendment right to protection against cruel and unusual punishment, and that the surgery is the “only adequate treatment” for Kosilek's gender-identity disorder.

Wolf ruled that Kosilek is also entitled to legal fees. Kosilek, 63, was born male but lives as a woman.

ILLINOIS

Court asked to end teacher strike

Mayor Rahm Emanuel asked a state court Monday to force Chicago school teachers back to work and end a weeklong strike he calls illegal.

The union immediately condemned the move as an act of vindictiveness by a “bullying” mayor.

Emanuel spokeswoman Sarah Hamilton said city attorneys filed a request in the Cook County Circuit Court to force Chicago Teachers Union members off the picket line and back into classrooms.

The request argues that the labor action is illegal because state law bars the union from striking on anything but economic issues, and that the work stoppage is focused instead on such issues as evaluations, layoffs and recall rights.